Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Telugu thrives in Mauritius

Bhimavaram, April 19: The Mauritius government was very keen to conduct research on Indian languages such as Telugu, Tamil and Hindi, said radio personality and researcher Mr Sanjeeva Narasimha Appadu.Speaking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, Mr Appadu, who is in the State to conduct research on Rangoli (popularly known as muggulu), said that the Mauritius government had declared an official holiday on the Andhra Pradesh State Formation Day to honour Telugus in the country.

It had also given holidays for other Hindu festivals such as Ugadi, Diwali, Dasara, Sankranti and Vinakayakachathurthi. Several Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, and Urdu were taught in the government schools of the island country, apart from Chinese, he said. "There are about 89 evening schools teaching Telugu language," said Mr Appadu. There was a Telugu television channel telecasting programmes in the language, he said.

The Mauritius government was also keen on developing institutions to conduct research and training on Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam andCarnatic Music, he added. Mr Appadu said that about 10,000 Telugus had migrated to the Mauritius during the British era to cultivate forest lands. There were at least 60,000 Telugus in the country at present, he added.